Printability of reticle repairs in a 248-nm DUV production environment

Xavier Gerard; Laurent Deloraine; Frank Sundermann; Eric Rouchouze

doi:10.1117/12.386487

2 June 2000 Printability of reticle repairs in a 248-nm DUV production environment

Xavier Gerard, Laurent Deloraine, Frank Sundermann, Eric Rouchouze

Proceedings Volume 3998, Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XIV; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.386487
Event: Microlithography 2000, 2000, Santa Clara, CA, United States

Abstract

The reduction of the CD budget is one of the key challenges of current and future semiconductor manufacturing technologies. There are many sources of CD dispersion, one of these is reticle errors, usually split into components such as linearity, uniformity across the field and mean to target offset. Reticle repairs are now emerging as another critical aspect to be added to the list of Mask Error Factors (MEF). As critical dimensions shrink down to 0.18 micrometer, 0.15 micrometer and even below, it becomes more and more difficult to build a defect free reticle right away. The frequency of reticle repairs increases with the technology complexity. It is therefore a necessity to fully characterize these defects. While repairs impact is sometimes evaluated by simulation, characterization on wafers is a lot scarcer. The purpose of this study was to link the observations made on repairs during the reticle inspection with their impact in terms of CD and process window on wafer. Reticle repairs have been characterized on various production reticles, using KLA STARlight SL300 (488 nm) and AIMS (248 nm) when available. The printability of these reticle repairs has then been studied on wafer. The impact on patterns close to the repair has also been measured. Patterns studied include contacts-holes and lines, on 0.18, 0.25 and 0.35 micrometer technologies. Exposure tools are ASML 248 nm DUV Steppers (/300) and Step-&- Scan (/500). A CD characterization method has been defined and different repair tools have been compared.

Citation Download Citation

Xavier Gerard, Laurent Deloraine, Frank Sundermann, and Eric Rouchouze "Printability of reticle repairs in a 248-nm DUV production environment", Proc. SPIE 3998, Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XIV, (2 June 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.386487

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
9 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Reticles

Semiconducting wafers

Inspection

Critical dimension metrology

Photomasks

Deep ultraviolet

Chlorine

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years